Musical instrument



(No Model.)

W. H. ROLLINS.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

No. 595,342. Patented Deo. 14,1897.

UNITED STATES PATENT EEICE,

VILLIAM HERBERT ROLLINS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 595,342, dated December 14, 1897.

Application filed February 28, 1896. Serial No. 581,184. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM HERBERT RoL- LINs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Musical Instruments; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to musical instruments, particularly that class termed mechanical musical instruments, or in which the notes are produced by a continuouslytraveling perforated paper about a roll.

My invention pertains to musical instruments equipped with pipes or reeds and likewise with a stationary element termed a tracker-board, over which a perforated sheet of paper is designed to travel, and actuated mechanically.

My improvements are embodied primarily in a tracker-board roll or bar whereby the perforated sheet is maintained in constant contact with the tracker-board to prevent false notes, which are liable to occur unless contact between these cooperating parts of the instrument is continuous.

Further, my invention is embodied in the construction of the receiving roll for the music, whereby variable longitudinal adjustment is prod uced for the guides between which the perforated sheet is wound. This variable adjustment is intended to compensate for any changes in the width of the sheet occasioned by atmospheric influences and is, furthermore, requisite in order to provide that the numerous similar perforations representing notes, each and several, shall always register accurately with the tracker-hole with which it is intended such perforations should cooperate, it being evident that any lateral deviation from such proper registration will be attended by a confusion in the sound produced.

Other peculiar characteristics and novel features will be subsequently and fully eX- plained hereinafter.

The drawings herewith presented represent, in Figure l, a front elevation in part of a mechanical musical instrument, showing the delivery and receiving rolls for the music-sheet, but with a portion of the latter removed, the instrument being equipped with a trackerboard roll or bar embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse section on line 2 2, showing the path of the music-sheet and the position of the tracker-board bar or roll. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section of the receivingroll, showing one form of the adjustable guides and the mechanism therefor. Figs. 4 and 5 represent opposite ends of the receiving-roll in longitudinal section, showing the preferred mode of operating the adjustable guides.

As before premised, my invention pertains to mechanical musical instruments known commercially under the names of zeoliam zeolian vocalion, an( symphony and operated by and equipped with pipes or reeds which are caused to produce sounds through the agency of a perforated sheet actuated mechanically.

In the present instance my invention relates to that part of the instrument which controls the movement and operation of the perforated sheet, and accordingly the other parts necessary to a complete organism have been omitted.

In the present instance I have shown my improvements as applied to that species of mechanical musical instrument known as a pressure-organ-that is, the air supplied by the bellows is forced into an air-tight receiving-chamber, within which the perforated sheet is operated and where it is arranged to pass over the tracker-board.

In the drawings, 2 represents a portion of the instrument-case, in which is a recess or chamber 3, which is made air-tight by means of a removable glass plate 3 and adapted to contain two rolls 4 5, suitably mounted, which for convenience of explanation I term, respectively, the delivery and receiving rolls, since before a piece of music is performed the roll et contains the perforated sheet l5, While during the operation of the instrument said sheet is transferred to and wound upon the receiving-roll 5, and in its passage is caused to pass over the tracker- ICO board G, so called. This element consists of a wooden beam pierced with holes or ducts '7, leading to pneumatics, so termed, which aetuate valves adapted to control the flow of air through the several pipes. These various parts are not illustrated, since they do not bear upon my invention.

Under certain conditions and when the aircurrents are light there is a tendency for the sheet to separate from the surface of the tracker-board. Whenever this separation takes place the air-currents, instead of passing into the tracker-holes designed to receive such air, are allowed to enter other trackerholes and a confusion of sound is produced. To obviate this difficulty, l have provided a bar 8 horizontally of the tracker-board and mounted said bar in brackets 9 loosely upon the delivery-roll. The surface of this bar contiguous to the tracker-board may conform in shape to that of the tracker-board to maintain close contact of the sheet with said board. This bar is, moreover, so positioned that it rests by gravity against the tracker-board and to one side of the tracker-holes above the perforated sheet at a point just before the passage of the perforations across the tracker-holes takes place. This insures continuous and perfect contact of the sheet upon the surface of the tracker-board and does not interfere with the admission of air. Hence no air can be diverted from its proper path and no air can pass beneath the sheet, as before instanced, to create confusion of sound. Cooperating with the tracker-board bar is a rod 10 to further depress the traveling sheet and to increase the surface contact with the board. This rod, however, may be omitted, if desired, and the sheet pass directly about the receiving-roll. To enable this trackerboard bar 8 to perform additional duties and to allow the sheet to pass more freely beneath it, said bar is made cylindrical or in the shape of a roll, and l have provided a iiexible band 12, by which the rotation of the deliveryroll 4 causes revolution of said roll S. Hence in whichever direction the sheet 15 is passing, whether about the revolving roll or when being rewound on its return to the deliveryroll, said tracker-board roll S is revolving in the opposite direction. In this way it exercises a slight drag or retarding action and thus enables the sheet to be wrapped more compactly about either of the rolls 4C 5, while it furthermore serves to hold back the slack or recess of feed from the delivery-roll when a piece is being performed.

My invention is further embodied in the construction of the receiving-roll, whereby the guides 13 can be adjusted lengthwise of the roll and thus be regulated to suit the varying width of the perforated sheet. This adjustment I find necessary in order to provide that the sheet 15, whatever its width, shall travel in a certain designated path, whereby every perforation representing a special note shall properly and accurately register with the tracker-hole with which it is designed to cooperate.

To carry out my invention, l provide the following mechanism, as preferably shownin Figs. a and 5:

Centrally and longitudinally of the delivery-roll is a rod 14C. This rod, which serves as a spindle to carry the roll, is screw-threaded at both ends and projects beyond the extremities of the roll, said screw-threads being right and left, while the extremities serve as journals for the roll, which is mechanically actuated, being equipped in the present instance with a toothed gear 16, having a series of lateral holes 17 on its inner surface, for purposes hereinafter mentioned. Metallic caps 1S are further provided, the exterior' diameter being equal to the diameter of the roll, so that the surfaces are flush with each other. The heads 19 of the caps are centrally bored and screw-threaded to engage the adjusting rod. Transverse disks or flanges 2O are affixed to the ends of the caps, and these serve as guides between which the sheet 15 is passed, and also compel said sheet to travel in a designated path. One of these disks is roughened on its periphery that it may be easily grasped for purposes of adjustment, and is further equipped with a locking-spring 2l, which engages in the holes 17, before mentioned, in the gear. Hence by disengaging the spring 2l from the gear 16 and revolving the shaft the flanges 20, which are not rotating, are caused to approach or separate, according to the direction in which the shaft is revolved.

In Fig. 3 a modified form of mechanism is shown, but in lieu of the spring 2l lockingnuts 23 are furnished to prevent movement of the caps, except at desired times, while a holding-screw 24e is placed midway of the roll to stop rotation of the rod 14, except when adjustment of the guides is required.

The ends of the delivery-roll are reduced a distance sufficient to enable proper come and go of the caps and guides to compensate for any variation in the width of the perforated sheets.4

Vhat I claim is- 1. ln a musical instrument, two rolls, a perforated sheet to be coiled and uncoiled about said rolls, and a tracker-board, combined with a tracker-board roll, and mechanism adapted to revolve said roll at a different rate of rotation from that of the movement of the perforated sheet on which said roll rests, substantially as described.

2. The combination with two rolls mechanically actuated, a tracker-board, and a perforated sheet adapted to be alternately coiled about said rolls, of a tracker-board roll longitudinally of the tracker-board and means for rotating said roll, reversely of the movement of the perforated sheet substantially as specied.

3. In a mechanical musical instrument the combination with two rolls, a perforated sheet lOO IIO

and having right and left screw-threads at its ends, adjustable caps at the extremities of said rolls, and collars or guides affixed to the caps, all operating substantially as set forth. 15

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

VILLIAM HERBERT ROLLINS.

lVitnesses:

FRANCIS C. STANWooD, H. E. LODGE. 

